The Talk of the Town by Fran Baker

couldn’t lessen her grip. She felt if she let go, she’d let go of her control and throw herself against him in a burst of tears.
    “So you robbed him,” she said, her voice breaking slightly.
    Anger, fear, even a rare touch of self-pity, gnawed at Luke, and he spouted out, “Keep in mind that I was a twenty-year-old kid with a chip on my shoulder and a grudge. I was drunk and angry, but even while I was in the act of taking my grandfather’s gun out of the drawer he kept it in, even when I was in the act of robbing that station, I was regretting it. A thousand times I’ve wished I could go back and change it all. If I could, God knows I would. But I can’t. I can’t change the past.”
    “I know that!” Roxie cried. She’d been afraid to say anything more than she already had, but she could no longer remain silent. She’d hurt him. And in hurting him, she’d pained herself unbearably. “I’m sorry, Luke. I didn’t mean to stir up old wounds. What happened then doesn’t matter now.”
    “Oh, yes, it does,” Luke countered through gritted teeth. “It matters every time I see someone avoid me. It matters every time I realize how much of my life I wasted. It matters every time I remember how deeply I disappointed my grandfather, the only person who ever really believed in me.”
    He dragged in a deep, cleansing breath and let it out slowly before he went on. “But if I can’t change the past, I can change the man. And believe me, I’ve changed.”
    “I know you have,” she said more calmly. “That’s why I wanted to hear your side of it. What you did then didn’t seem to match up with the man I know you are now. I wanted to understand it. Thank you for explaining.”
    Relief flooded through him, lightening and lifting him. She didn’t hate him. She didn’t even think less of him. “You don’t need to thank me. I wanted to explain. I wanted you to know that I’m trying to turn things around. I’m living up to my own expectations now, no one else’s, and I expect myself to make good.”
    His voice trailed away like one of those clouds he liked to watch and he gave a humorless laugh. “It’s so easy to go wrong and so hard to make it all right.”
    “How many men even try?” she questioned softly.
    Ironing all expression from his face, Luke came abruptly to his feet. Once again, Roxie had stirred up emotions he hadn’t thought he still possessed. He felt wrung out and more than a little vulnerable. He hated to admit it, but he couldn’t deny that his past mattered. It mattered way too much. He spent every day of his life facing up to that fact. He couldn’t believe she would be able to disregard it in the long run.
    Uncertainty replaced his fading relief. After she’d thought about it a bit, he felt sure she’d realize what a mistake it would be to get involved, however innocently, with him. And he didn’t think he would be able to bear the pain of her inevitable rejection.
    So he did what he had to do. He retreated behind the defensive aloofness that had served him so well of late and said coolly, “I’ve bored you long enough. Besides, we’ve got to get back to work.”
    By the time Roxie got to her feet, he had turned and stalked away. Appetite gone, she held her unopened lunch bag and tried to digest what she had just learned about Luke. She wanted to run after him and tell him that he hadn’t bored her in the least. She wanted most of all to assure him that she believed in him. But realizing that he probably wouldn’t stop to listen, she blew out a discouraged breath and followed him back to the warehouse.
     

Chapter 5
     
    May melted away into June in a heat wave that wrung out the town and worried the surrounding farmers. “It’s gotta rain soon” was a continual refrain heard from the bank to the blacksmith’s to the barber shop. News that poor Phil Campbell had gone under brought a nodding of heads and a round of speculation as to who would be the next to lose his